A Livable Living Room

Sleek Sectional: Yes, it can work in the living room. LiLu used a neutral piece, paid attention to scale, and kept the color here limited to accents.Accent Chairs: To balance a sectional, independent, non-matching chairs work wonders. Here we love the fun pink swivel number in the corner.White Paint: By lightening up the original mahogany built-ins, the room took on a fresh, clean, lively look and made focal points (especially the TV spot) pop.

Designing can be tricky when you want to create an elegant living room that you actually plan to live in. For this reason, a young Kenwood couple turned to LiLu Interiors’ Lisa Peck and Emily Anderson, ASID and allied ASID designers respectively, who went into this project with livability on the brain. “We had to make it comfortable, yet formal enough if they wanted to entertain,” says Peck. By grouping furniture into different vignettes, they managed three intimate sitting areas: a pair of soft conversational armchairs, a glamorous love seat nook, and an everyday spot to kick back and watch TV—there’s a flat-screen above the fireplace. Since this is the TV room (and when the guys come over to watch hockey, this is where they hang), they worked with a few comfy basics, such as a sleek smaller-scale sectional and textured rugs. Then they amped up the look with touches of glitz, including damask, mirror, and sheen. Though they began with a neutral palette, it was quickly apparent that the client loved color, specifically pink and aqua—“LiLu colors,” Peck says cheerfully. The designers were eager to add in pops of both as they see too many clients wait years to get that vibrant look and feel. Peck’s mantra: “If you want color, do it now.”

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A native Californian, Jennifer Blaise Kramer received a master's degree in journalism from Boston University, fell in love with a New Englander, and then moved to Minneapolis—twice. In addition to working as a senior editor for Mpls.St.Paul...